October 2026: A month in Eastern France & Switzerland.
After 4 months of 1-month bases (Paris, Edinburgh, York and London), we were happy to be back to fast travelling in October. Especially after our particularly crappy month in London.
The themes of our month? Pretty Alsatian villages, the Alps, and a few lesser-known destinations in Eastern and Southern France. This map sums up our month.
In this summary I tell you about the highlights and lowlights of the month, cover our costings, and tell you about our upcoming month. November will be unlike anything we’ve done before.
Some quick thoughts on places visited in October
It was a very good month. Highlights? Definitely Strasbourg and Colmar and the many pretty towns in between. People talk about the Alsatian villages such as Riquewihr and Ribeauvillé (both very popular) but Obernai and Sélestat were also fantastic. And there are castles: Château du Haut-Kœnigsbourg is the largest castle in Alsace and should be visited but my favorite day was hiking to the 3 castles in Ribeauvillé. We really enjoyed Alsace.
Switzerland: apart from 3 wonderful days in Lauterbrunnen many, many years ago, Switzerland has always left a blah taste in our months. Lucerne? Blah. Geneva. Definitely Blah. This time around we saw Basel and Bern. I wouldn’t recommend Basel (just not that much of interest for the average tourist) but Bern is interesting between its arcaded buildings, fountains, clock towers and how the town wraps around the river Aare. I think it’s worth a visit (if you can afford it. The pricing in Switzerland is suffocating*)
*Airbnb or Hotel? In Switzerland I definitely recommend an Airbnb (or hotel with a kitchen) just so you can save on food. We didn’t dare eat out in Bern.
Language: Alsace hugs the German border and whether in Strasbourg, Colmar or all the little towns, everyone speaks both French and German. Even the street names are in both languages (French big, German small underneath). This area has belonged to both (of the present day) countries over the centuries and so there are shared languages and culture.
We expected a bit of the same when we crossed the border from France into Switzerland. Basel is literally on the French/Swiss (as well as the German border). But no, in Basel all the signs are in German, there’s no trace of French. We actually had an interesting conversation with a lady in a bookstore in Basel: as we found out, she was actually German and had moved to Basel a few years back (she loves Basel, a small city with an international feel according to her). But a couple of things learned from our conversation: 1) In Basel, you’re better off talking in English than French. Between the two languages locals are just more comfortable with English. 2) Most Germans have a very hard time understanding Swiss-German which is many ways very different than German.
And then of course you go from Bern to Geneva where French is the spoken language.
It’s what I love about Europe: the mix of languages and culture in such a small space. I always find it fascinating.
Back to France: We had a few stops in the Alps: Annecy (considered by many the most beautiful town in France. I think it’s overrated to be honest. I’ll be writing about that) and Grenoble (incredible geographical location but there’s not much to the city). Finally, Perpignan; a sleepy town close to the Spanish border. Is it worth a visit? No. But like Grenoble I was curious about Perpignan.
While we didn’t love every place we visited during the month we still enjoyed it. We spent most of the month in France (our 4th month in France this year) and I’ll say what I’ve said before: we really like the French. It’s funny the generalizations people have about various nationalities: the French being rude, the English being polite, the Germans being cold, the Spanish being friendly. These generalizations are all – for the most part – wrong. We’ve always liked the French and the Germans, the English are not polite (the Scottish are a whole different breed, they’re about the nicest people we’ve met) and the Spanish are the ones who are often cold.
The above are our experiences. You may not agree.
Next: costs for the month
The Cost of a Month in France & Switzerland
“Fast” travelling and covering all that distance meant that October was an expensive month, actually the most expensive month we’ve had since we got back to full-time travel earlier this year.
Accommodation
Of our 7 bookings in October, 5 were Airbnb, 2 were on Booking.com. Overall we did very well, I would pretty much recommend all of our accommodation choices.
Strasbourg. We stayed in this Airbnb for 15 nights. The photos don’t do it justice, it is a very nice apartment and Sabine was a sweetheart. The neighbourhood near the train station wasn’t great but we were just a few minutes from many of the highlights of Strasbourg. Cost averaged out to 109 Euros/night.
Colmar. We stayed in this Airbnb for 7 nights, the cost averaging 82 Euros/night. Perfect short stay apartment, the location in the center of the old town was great.
Basel. We stayed 1 night in this hotel that we booked on Booking.com. Cost 175 Euros/night. Very ordinary stay (very basic room) and I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this hotel.
Bern. An apartment booked through Booking.com, cost 183 Euros/night (the most expensive accommodation during the month). A very good short-stay apartment that I would recommend if going to Bern.
Annecy. We stayed in this Airbnb for 3 nights, cost 142 Euros/night. One of the most beautiful Airbnb apartments we’ve ever stayed in except that both the bed or couch were uncomfortable. Don’t you hate when that happens?
Grenoble. 2 nights in this Airbnb, cost 89 Euros/night. Small but very comfortable.
Perpignan. 3 nights in this Airbnb, cost 69 Euros/night. This Airbnb needs some work and care…but the balcony and the location right at the entrance of the old town are fantastic. Despite everything it’s good for a short stay.
Adding it all up, accommodation came out to just over 3,600 Euros during the month…an average of 116 Euros/night.
Long Distance Travel
We spent just over 1,000 Euros between the two of us. What we paid:
London – Paris – Strasbourg: 504 Euros total (ie. 252 Euros each). It’s the first time we’ve taken the Eurostar and it’s incredible: 2 hrs, 15 minutes between London and Paris (where it arrives at Gare du Nord). From there, it’s a 15-minute walk to Gare de l’Est where we took the TGV to Strasbourg (1 hr, 45 min). Honestly, incredibly efficient and it was 5 hours door-to-door London to Strasbourg.
Strasbourg to Colmar takes 35 min by local train (cost 15.50 Euros each) and Colmar to Basel took 45 minutes (cost 15 Euros each).
Like everything else, train costs in Switzerland were high: 42 Swiss Francs each from Basel to Bern (about 46 Euros for a 1-hour train ride) and 53 Swiss Frances (about 58 Euros) from Bern to Basel (which takes about 2 hours). From Geneva we took Flixbus to get to Annecy (1 hr, 11 Euros each).
The Annecy – Grenoble train cost 15 Euros each (1 hr, 45 min).
Finally, the other big trip of the month: Grenoble – Valence – Perpignan cost 182 Euros (ie 91 Euros each).
All that added up. Total distance covered in the month: approx. 1,700 km or about 1050 miles.
Short Distance Travel
Mostly regional trains and buses on day trips. Total 88 Euros.
Restaurants
We were careful not to eat out too much and when we did it was simple: a lunch in Obernai (eating tarte flambée, an Alsatian specialty), several brunches in Colmar at La petite Colmarienne (recommended), a very good Italian restaurant in Basel, and a few stops in different places for sandwiches and pizza.
Groceries
Our grocery bill has consistently been around the 1,000 Euro mark throughout our 4 months in France. People say that’s a lot (I like to have a bit of wine with my meals) but at least we’re consistent. When we lived in Spain we’d usually be around 600 – 700 Euro/month, so groceries in France have been significantly higher (especially meat). I’ve talked about it in other monthly summaries.
I’m not going to go over the other line items in our cost summary, they’re relatively minor and the usual stuff. Except for one thing which is a segway to the next section:
Clothes
369 Euros spent on clothes; new shoes, shirts and sweaters in preparation for the next leg of our journeys: a cruise to the Americas and overlanding Mexico and Central America.
Next: Our Upcoming Plans
Our Upcoming Plans
On November 18th we’ll be boarding the MSC World Europa on its repositioning to the Caribbean. For those who don’t know about “repositioning”: Cruise ships spend a certain amount of time in different parts of the world, for example summer in the Mediterranean and winter in the Caribbean. So twice a year, these ships have to shift their positions. In this case, the vessel will be moving from the Mediterranean to the Caribbean; so this is an 18 day, one-way repositing cruise that will take us from Barcelona to Guadalupe with lots of stops in between (Lanzarote, Tenerife, St. Maarten, St. Kitts, St. Vincent, Barbados, Grenada, Martinique).
Why did we decide to do this? 1) we really wanted to avoid a long flight, 2) Repositioning cruises are a good deal (I guess because not everyone has the flexibility to do them) and the cost of the cruise is less than airfare and 18 days worth of accommodation and food, 3) It’s a great way to visit a whole bunch of islands that otherwise would have been expensive and complicated to get to, 4) we’ve never taken a cruise and just want to see what it’ll be like. After a month of fast travel, it’ll be nice to spend almost 3 weeks on a floating hotel.
We’ll dock in Guadalupe on December 6th, fly to Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic) Dec 8th, and then on to Cancun Dec 10th. From there we’ll start our adventures on the Yucatan Peninsula, mostly using Mexico’s (relatively) new Maya Train. We’ll make our way to Chiapas and spend a bit of time in San Cristobal de las Casas before heading into Guatemala sometime in the new year. Early 2027 will be about discovering Central America and (maybe) working our way down to South America. How far we get and how long we do it for depends on how it goes.
So after having spent the last 10 months in Western Europe, the next little while will be very different. And I look forward to documenting it all for those who might be curious about the above. I might even try to do videos again, something I just haven’t had the time for (if curious, please subscribe to our Youtube Channel).
We’re both very excited about our travel plans over the next while.👍
Related: September 2026: A Month in London
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